Mobile electronic devices such as smart phones, tablets and the like are being used for an increasing variety of purposes. One example is usage-based insurance (UBI) for automobiles. Information about how a driver drives is used to more accurately set an insurance premium for that driver. Typically, driving information is gathered by a hardware “dongle” attached to the car's electronic system. More recently, efforts have been made to migrate such an information gathering function to smart phones. A driver carries his or her smart phone while driving. A background application runs on the smart phone and gathers driving information.
Mobile electronic devices such as smart phones have also begun to be used for fleet tracking. Like UBI, fleet tracking has been performed primarily using dedicated vehicle hardware. Such tracking has typically relied upon global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) such as GPS, augmented as needed by dead reckoning navigation during periods of GPS unavailability. Map matching techniques have been used to refine and display location information. Mobile electronic devices such as smart phones are equipped with a variety of communication and sensing capabilities. A typical smart phone is capable of determining its location using GPS, or by other various means using, for example cell site transmissions, WiFi transmissions, etc. Using smart phones for fleet tracking removes the need for specialized hardware.
Mobile electronic devices have also given rise to location-based services, which rely upon receiving location information of the smart phone. Such services are typically episodic in nature; for example, when a device comes within range of a location offering goods or services, an advertisement for such goods or services may be displayed.
There remains a need for a system that uses mobile electronic devices such as smart phones in a way that allows the user control of location information to benefit the user.